An 'Inside Peek' into Mary's Mind
by Bumpkin
Summary: Mary McGinnis laughed when Terry confessed about his alter ego in the Episode Sneek Peek, but what if she had thought about it afterwards? "Nominated for a 2007 'UFO Award'. :D"


AN: This fic's original version was conceived over two years ago – almost three really – I sent it off to my beta and she went "Ummm…" and then made a whole bunch of terrific suggestions that made this fic so much more than it was. So thank you Knottaclue, you're a lifesaver.  
Ps: I know the title sucks, if anyone has a better suggestion, leave me the idea in the comments. :)

Disclaimer: Not mine, I could only wish…

Summary: Mary McGinnis laughed when Terry confessed about his alter ego in the Episode Sneek Peek, but what if she had thought about it afterwards?

An 'Inside Peek' into Mary's Mind  
By Marns AKA Bumpkin  
Rated: PG

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Terry paced as the vidscreen hyped, _And coming up next, The Inside Peek, but first these words… _Matt hit the mute button.

"Mom, Matt, there's something I need to tell you." Terry's voice was tense.

"After the show dear." Mary absently replied.

"No! It can't wait." Terry couldn't look at them when he confessed so he turned away from his two loved ones on the couch. "I – I'm Batman." There, it was out. He had confessed. He waited with bated breath to see how they had taken his news. He didn't expect what he got.

Laughter. His mom and brother were falling all over each other giggling it up! Terry felt pissed off. "Seriously – I am!"

The only response he got was from his mother as she fanned herself. "Terry, please."

"Hey, it's coming on!" Matt cried excitedly as he un-muted the vidscreen. He and his mother leaned in as the announcer's voice came smoothly over the airwaves.

_Tonight's edition of The Inside Peek has been postponed due to technical difficulties; please stay tuned for an encore presentation of… _Matt flicked the mute back on quickly as he turned to his mother and asked petulantly, "Postponed? Why'd they do that?"

His mother's voice clearly showed her own disgust as she answered her younger son. "Maybe Ian Peek lost his nerve."

"Somehow I doubt that." Terry's voice had unconsciously fallen into the lower and harsher patterns that he used when he was the Batman. He didn't notice his mother's suddenly pale face swivel around to look at him as he stalked quietly out of the room. Her countenance clearly betraying the shock that she felt as she realized that perhaps Terry hadn't been joking.

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Mary just sat on the couch, feeling numb. She had heard that voice before – it just hadn't been from her son – it had come from behind a black mask with white eyes. The mask of the Batman. Right now she could hear her elder son's voice in the other room even though most others wouldn't be able to. Thankfully for her sanity it sounded like her Terry again.

"C'mon old man, pick up the phone – Where'd you go? Where?"

'Mr. Wayne,' Mary thought to herself, 'that's who he must be trying to call. Is he Batman's mysterious friend that Peek was talking about? Must be, after all Wayne is who Terry works for – ' Her thoughts trailed off when she was distracted by Matt as he turned the volume back up on the vidscreen as he found a show to watch after flipping through the channels. Leaving her younger son to watch the program he had chosen, Mary got up and wandered into the kitchen to absently put away the popcorn maker.

'How had Terry become Batman in the first place?' she wondered rather desperately. It hit her then. Bruce Wayne must have been the first Batman. It made sense – followed a logical progression of sorts at any rate, Terry was Batman and he worked for Wayne… hence her guess.

Mary walked through her dark kitchen to look down the hall to see her older son pacing like a caged tiger, phone to his ear. She marveled at the leashed violence Terry was displaying. 'It's incredible,' she thought. He had gotten in so few fights this year, and even with him falling asleep in class all the time his grades had still somehow markedly improved. It was hard for her to believe that the same boy who had made such strides in life like her Terry had in the last year was out every night beating the tar out of criminals. It just seemed absurd.

Terry hung up the phone he had been trying to call his boss on and abruptly spun on his heel to stalk into his room. He came out again immediately, but with his backpack slung over his shoulder now. 'Hmm, that must be where he keeps the suit,' she thought irreverently as she watched him stride towards her.

"Gotta go to work mom – be back when I can." He said shortly, leaning in to give her a quick kiss on the cheek. Mary almost called out to ask him where he was going, but then she shut her mouth. She knew where he was going, he'd told her – to work. She just hoped he came back in one piece now that she knew what he did when he was 'working'. She couldn't quite stop the small jump she did when the door slammed shut behind her eldest after thinking such dire thoughts.

She sighed heavily as she thought of something and smiled wryly, 'Well, I guess one reason that he isn't getting into the fights at school anymore is because he gets to work all his aggressions out at night – somewhat legitimately.' It didn't explain the better grades, but she wasn't going to think too much on that one. She would just enjoy it. It would be like looking a gift horse in the mouth and getting bitten for her trouble… but wait – that was kinda the way that she had missed that her son was flying around the city in skintight black long johns wasn't it?

Mary fought the urge to loudly groan, she didn't want to draw Matt's attention away from the show he was engrossed in. She didn't feel up to putting up a front for him quite yet, she still had too much thinking to do.

She pushed off from the doorframe she was leaning against and walked down the shadowed hall towards the bedrooms. Matt's door was wide open, and Mary was able to see all the messy glory of his eight-year-old's room. Her eyes skimmed over prized posters hung haphazardly on his walls, glossy prints of various video game characters and the one prized magazine cover with a picture of his ultimate hero, Batman. On his floor, amid the scattered toys and clothing, were several Batman action figures. She wondered what he would think of his hero if he knew that it was his brother under that scary black suit?

Mary thought back to her youth. She too had posters of the cowled hero on her walls, but hers had been of the old costume and the original hero. She also didn't think that she and her youngest son had put the posters up for the same reasons, she hadn't put the posters up in her room until she was in her teens. She'd had such a horrible crush on the masked man, and he was already fading into an urban legend even then. Mary blushed as she wondered what Bruce Wayne would have thought of her childish infatuation had he known of it while being entertained on her living room couch.

She noticed as she suppressed her embarrassment that Terry's door wasn't completely shut and the sliver of light shining through from the windows beyond was like a beacon. Should she? No, it was a horrible invasion of privacy, but on the other hand – a quick look at what he had been hiding from her really wouldn't be too bad, would it? Using motherly concern and outrage as a justification, Mary slowly pushed open the door and stepped inside Terry's room.

'He's certainly much neater than he used to be, so much so that it's almost unnatural.' leapt unbidden into her mind as she gazed around the eighteen-year-old's bedroom. It felt like everything had been assigned a place with a military-like precision and heaven help the item that stepped out of line. Inwardly she cursed as she realized that she wasn't going to able to snoop like she had wanted – Terry would've noticed for sure that someone had been in his room. She had to content herself with a surface scan of the room's contents, some of which surprised her, she hadn't known how much Terry had been given by the old man. Expensive knick-knacks and doodads littered the flat surfaces along with some high tech gadgetry. 'Maybe I should up the contents insurance on the apartment,' she thought dryly. 'What I'm insured for now wouldn't cover this room alone.'

She walked out of the room and pulled the door totally closed behind her. She wondered how much of his 'work' gear was hidden in the fastidiously neat room of her eldest. 'Probably too much for my comfort level.' Came the sardonic response in a flash. She shook her head. She didn't know what to think, between Terry and Bruce Wayne so many things had been hidden from her. Resting her back against the now secure door, she stood in the darkened hall to think over a few things. Things like how did Wayne and her son meet really?

That story that he had fed her when she had asked how Terry had known him – defended him from a bunch of hooligans, yeah right – who had really defended whom? Well, she allowed that they could have defended each other – if her supposition about Mr. Wayne being the original Batman was right. He was pretty old, but she wasn't going to make the mistake of thinking that meant he was helpless – not if he was able to keep Terry in line. She smirked, if she knew anything it was that her kids were both handfuls to deal with and that perhaps Wayne might have bitten off more than he could chew when he hired her son.

Remembering back to the day that Mr. Wayne had showed up to offer him the job, she thought of how Terry had acted when he first came out of his room – he had been a strange combination of defensive and sheepish. It had reminded her of when Terry had been Matt's age and he'd done something he wasn't allowed to do but had gone ahead and done it anyway. In fact – now that she thought about it – Terry had almost looked like he was getting ready to confess to something when Mr. Wayne had overrode him with that ridiculous hooligan story. Terry had looked so shocked, she remembered with a grin, and that last bit about the refused reward had almost made him choke. She supposed that it was something else that she wasn't likely to find out anytime soon, but other things were becoming clear to her now.

Terry's confusion at first over the job offer itself from the rich old man. She had wondered what skills Terry could have that would be of use to Mr. Wayne or if the post was a made-up way of thanking Terry. Then when the older man had been speaking so strangely while describing the job, Mary had jumped to the conclusion that Terry's reluctance was due to the menial sounding nature of the position – like any teenager would've been. So she had pushed her son, "Of course he would, wouldn't you honey?" She had even pointed out the honour of working with someone as famous as Mr. Wayne – she cringed inwardly. 'Could she have been any more shallow sounding?' She had just been so eager to have Terry accept the job thinking that if he were working he wouldn't have any time to get into trouble again. She sighed and pushed off from the door that she'd been resting against to wander further down the hall to her own room, still lost in contemplation.

She hadn't thought twice of the strange way that the older man had worded things. Passing it off simply as Mr. Wayne being old and eccentric and used to getting his own way more often than not. She guessed now that Terry had known then what the offer was really about and that was why Terry's – "Sure" – assent to the millionaire's offer had appeared so cynical… The following warning of how hard a taskmaster the older man could be, how he accepted nothing short of excellence Terry had shrugged off with a wry half smile and an unconcerned, "I think I can handle it."

None of it had been normal, not the way Terry had spoken to his potential employer or the way that Mr. Wayne hadn't seemed to be bothered by it. If only she'd listened, actually paid some proper attention – she might have caught on that there was something funny going on, but she hadn't. She'd just been so hyped for Terry to take the job that she had convinced herself that none of it had meant anything. She had even glossed over the way that Mr. Wayne had stood and formally 'Welcomed' Terry to his world in such a strangely ominous manner when they shook hands…

How wrong she had been in retrospect. 'None so blind as those who do not wish to see...' she quoted mentally. She entered her own room and walked across its width to the bank of windows that stretched across the far wall to look out at the city that her son protected. From the seventeenth floor it didn't look that bad, but she knew now how deceptive appearances could be.

A thin veneer of something – she didn't know what – covered both her son and Bruce Wayne with a degree of geniality, hiding the leashed violence underneath. The two of them were like Gotham, she mused – both looked pleasant on the surface, but when you looked deeper the truth came to light - in all three cases. Mary couldn't deny the darkness that lived in her eldest, if she did she would only be deluding herself.

Hunh, at least she didn't have to worry about being one of those mothers that thought their child could do no wrong simply because it was 'their' child – any delusions she might have had were pretty clearly at the machinations of someone else. Well, for the most part at any rate, she thought guiltily as her glossing over the strangeness with the job offer was still fresh in her mind.

Although, now that she knew what was really going on, the two of them were going to find it harder to hide things from her in the future. Her lips pressed together in an unhappy frown as the train of thought got her thinking – how many things _had_ the two of them hid from her? How many times had Terry been hurt? What kind of danger did he regularly throw himself into? Good lord, only a month or so ago there had been that big ruckus about that Shriek fellow. How he'd held the city hostage in order to get to Batman! At least Batman had won that round – or Terry had, as she now knew, and Mary was even more thankful now than she had been before that he had – but the whole damn city had been willing to throw the hero to the proverbial wolves. That had been her son they had wanted to hand over!

Another instance came to mind. What about just a few weeks past? When the commissioner had sent some policemen to her door saying that she wanted Terry brought in for questioning. Then, the very next day, the commissioner had called her personally to tell her the only reason she had wanted to question Terry was because of some kind of Student Service Award that he was up for. Mary now recalled that there had been a full-scale manhunt on for Batman at the time but it had been called off after a very short time.

The timing now seemed very suspect to Mary - did the Commissioner know that Terry was Batman? How would that work? Vigilantes were technically against the law – but then again, the old Commissioner Gordon had worked with the original Batman so she guessed there was precedent.

Mary was so confused; she didn't know what to think. Except that she was really glad now of the 'technical difficulties' that had stopped the show from airing. Mary had no illusions of what their lives would have turned into if the show had been broadcast. She had seen the damage done after other so-called 'exposes' of anything remotely inflammatory. The media circus it would have sparked off – Mary shuddered. Simply put, it would have been nothing short of insanity and that just would have been from the bat-fans.

Not seeing anything out of the window she still stood in front of as she gazed sightlessly ahead, all her attention focused again inwards as she calculated. Then there was the other side of the coin, the more sinister side – all the people that had a problem with the Batman. The ones that he had put away. She had no doubt they would have been out for blood. If they knew who was under the mask then they could target family or friends at will to get their revenge. A tired plot device every vid-writer seemed to use at some point. No imagination needed there – except of course what would happen if someone had them at their mercy… Mary's skin goosebumped as a chill of terror ran down her back and she wrapped her arms around herself.

Wandering over to sit on her bed, Mary realized that even if they weren't harmed, they could still be used as bait. Mary had a feeling that had already happened once with Matt. The time he had been snatched by that tattooed hunting type guy with the spear and subsequently stuffed in a cage. He hadn't been some random kid grabbed up for bait after all – somehow that Stalker fellow had known there was a connection between Matt and Batman.

Mary couldn't help the smile that came to her face as she sat down, grabbing a pillow to hug in her lap. She remembered how worried she had been with the way that Matt seemed to blown off the whole incident – except, of course, to gloat about how he had seen Batman in action. He had even mocked Terry about being a loser in comparison to the super cool Batman. Terry had shrugged off the unfavorable opinion with a simple, "Hey, we can't all be Batman." Following with a gentle tussling match. Resting her chin on the pillow snugged up to her chest Mary wondered, how hard had it been for her older son to not react to that? Mary thought that she would have had trouble not telling a bratty sibling of hers if she had saved them. Especially if she knew that she was the hero that her sibling idolized.

So many things were falling into place with this huge revelation. Or should that be _revelations_? Because with the one figured out the rest just seemed to follow.

She was still feeling stunned. More than a bit numb too. Her son, Terry McGinnis, was Batman. It seemed too incredible to be true. He was only eighteen years old – how could he be the same man as the masked hero that was out there protecting the city and making it safer every night? How could he do it and still live his life? Terry had a girlfriend, and he was getting better grades in school lately than he ever had – even if he did fall asleep in class all the time.

It made sense now though, his falling asleep in class – the way he was always so tired – as well as the lies and the unexplained absences. He was living two lives in one. It made more sense than her other theory had, the one where Terry was using 'slappers'. She knew her son, and she knew that he was not the type to use drugs. She just had been at her wits end to explain his huge change in behavior. And she had caught him with some red-handed, so to speak, but now she realized that he had probably only had them because of his being Batman. No doubt he had taken them from some other kid that had been using. Mary thought back to his story of 'finding' them at the locker room at school, and winced – if he was going to keep being Batman, he was really going to need to work on his excuses. That was one was pretty lame, even she could have done better than that.

If he was going to continue? What was she thinking? She should march up to that big old drafty house on the hill and ask Wayne whom the hell he thought he was letting an 18-year-old boy run around doing such dangerous things. She should tell Terry that she believed his confession of being the masked hero and wanted him to quit – shouldn't she? That is what a responsible mother would do… but Mary thought of the way Terry's grades had improved, even with the double life. She thought of the way that she wasn't as scared anymore when the sun went down because of Batman and his efforts. She thought of Terry's new self-confidence and self-esteem and his improved relationship with both her and his younger brother, Matt. Lastly she thought of herself and the pride that coursed through her as she thought of everything that Batman had done since he had reappeared, knowing now that it had been Terry the whole time under the frightening black suit.

That's when she knew; she wasn't going to do anything. A bittersweet smile crossed her face as she painfully realized she had made her choice. She wasn't going to tell Terry or Bruce Wayne what she'd figured out, she'd just watch, listen and pray. Mary was proud of her eldest son and knew that she couldn't ask him to quit. The city they lived in needed its Batman more than she needed to have her son safe. Even if the idea was enough to rip her heart out, she thought with a sigh as she discarded her cuddle pillow and went to check on Matt.

End?


End file.
